the past seven years. It will do so with a new leader. David Stubbs has moved on and the new Chief Executive is Jonathan Smith who has been running the Scottish Golf Environment Group, is based in North Berwick, East Lothian
“Whilst we are keen to reinforce the value of past work, such as the landmark Valderrama Declaration,” said Jonathan “we are also keen to move forward with many new initiatives which we believe will benefit the golf sector.
“Our mission is to promote environmental sustainability in golf, and to achieve this by assisting the sector in structuring, implementing and promoting its environmental work.”
The Foundation remains an independent, not-for-profit organisation with strong support from within golf and also from environmental agencies and government regulators and NGO‘s.
Jonathan continues, “We are keen to utilise this “neutral” position to facilitate improved interaction between the golfing and environmental sectors -demonstrating the many mutually beneficial outcomes between a thriving golf industry and environmental best practice.
“Our draft strategy centres around two key elements: firstly the establishment of a European Forum for Sustainable Golf. This will aim to enable the many stakeholders within and from outside the golf sectors to come together, exchange views, set and implement an agenda delivering environmental best practices for golf course development and management. In tandem, we will continue to promote the Committed to Green Accreditation Scheme to golf facilities who wish to benchmark themselves against recognised environmental standards.
“As we all know, golf faces many environmental challenges and in response is undertaking a great deal of good work. We believe this work could benefit from greater coordination and communication within the sector, and greater recognition outside. We hope that the Foundation will be seen to be a valuable player in this field, working in tandem with others to further the interests and improve the standing of the game of golf.”
The Foundation intends to run a series of events over the course of 2005/2006 and to upgrade its website and e-newsletter.
The new contact details are as follows:
Jonathan Smith, Chief Executive
Committed to Green Foundation, Fenton Barns, North Berwick, East Lothian, Scotland EH 39 5BW Tel. Int +44 (0)1620 850 659 e-mail jonathan.ctg@virgin.net
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